Manage your subscription

Goth subculture may support vulnerable teens

An obsession with pain and death is not just a matter of style for most teenage goths. It seems that about half of them have deliberately harmed themselves or attempted suicide. But worried parents can take heart – vulnerable children who join the subculture may well find others who understand their problems.

Robert Young from the University of Glasgow, UK, and his colleagues interviewed 1258 young people at ages 11, 13, 15 and 19. Of those who considered themselves goths, 53 per cent had self-harmed and 47 per cent had tried to commit suicide (BMJ, vol 332, p 909). Between …